I remember seeing these movies and posters in grade school in the Midwest and, although the nearest quarry was 50 miles away, we were always looking for those dangerous blasting caps supposedly laying around everywhere like cigarette butts!

Now that I'm an adult, I found that the "Blasting Cap Phobia" really only gripped rural areas. I doubt this film was ever shown to a kid in Chicago, Los Angeles or New York City!

If you're a child of the cities, you owe it to yourself to watch this! The "Explosives Professional" can't even handle his helmet let alone his canned speech! It's a blast to watch!!!

A guy who drives around in a red station wagon with the words EXPLOSIVES on it drives around all day waiting for the next blasting cap danger. He gets a call about a blasting cap in a garage, and comes just in time as some kids were about to enter it! So, this is almost like Guardiana, except with a disco sound track, and an Andy Williams look-a-like, When the kids ask to see a demonstration of blasting caps in action, Andy says to one of the kids to plug in the television set he has in the back on his station wagon, which of course made me wonder what ELSE he has stashed back there.

Ha ha. Great fun here, almost equal in absurdness as Blasting Cap Danger, except this is geared to slightly older (but not wiser) kids.

Interesting safety film about what to do if you should find a blasting cap (I wasnt aware that this was such a big problem). A group of teen boys find one in their garage and an explosives expert is called in to remove it (lucky for him he has his safety googles and hard hat on just in case it did go off). The explosive expert then lectures the boys and shows them a film (out of the back of his 1970's station wagon?) about the power of these blasting caps. If anything it makes these caps look like a blast (bad pun intended) and if I were to find one I'd be celebrating like it were the 4th of July.

This is another film about the dangers of blasting caps, this time targeting teens and taking place during the 70s. A kid finds a blasting cap, and even though he doesnÃÂÃÂt know what it is, he thinks it would be a good idea to hook it up to the radio heÃÂÃÂs building (whereÃÂÃÂs Dick York when you need him?). Fortunately, he has a friend who remembers seeing a poster warning about blasting caps at school. The friend calls the police, who send out a guy in a red car, labeled ÃÂÃÂEXPLOSIVES,ÃÂÃÂ who verrry carefully puts the blasting cap in a metal strongbox and then shows the kids a video about the dangers of blasting caps from the tv he just happens to have in the back of his car. The highlight of this is a bizarre-looking mannequin that is used to show what would happen to a person in the vicinity of an exploding blasting cap. This film isnÃÂÃÂt nearly as much fun as Blasting Cap Danger, but it does make its point quickly, without wearing out its welcome.
Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.

Mr. Handy can't even handle holding on to his helmet, and we're trusting him with blasting caps?

--Taylor

This film seems to tie in with "Explosives-Tool for Progress"- this film opens with a narrator saying "That's how professionals use explosives..." which sounds like a reference to that film. This movie also gives the same examples of uses of explosives and uses some of the same footage of explosives in action. Both films are produced by the Institute Of Makers Of Explosives (IME) and appear to be from roughly the same time period.

There is also a 1957 film on the same subject available from the Prelinger Archive at http://www.archive.org/details/blasting_cap_danger. Titled "Blasting Cap- Danger!", it was also produced by IME. It is a somewhat longer but (relatively speaking) much more interesting film.

This film starts with a dispatcher sending an explosives technician (in a big red 70s Ford Station wagon with a large EXPLOSIVES sign on it) to pick up a blasting cap that some kids had found. Cut to a garage, where 3 teenage boys are fighting. One kid has locked the blasting cap in his garage and is fighting with his friend for the key. "NO! It's a blasting cap! It's DANGEROUS!!!!" "No it isn't- it's some kind of electrical device and I'm going to wire it up to my radio battery!" "Didn't you see the poster at school?" "No." This goes on and on.

Right then our hero shows up to save the day. He gets the key and puts the blasting cap into a large red lockbox. Then he asks one of the boys to plug in the super-long electrical cord of the TV he happens to keep in the back of his car (?) so he can show a film on the dangerous effects of blasting caps. This gives us the only interesting moments of the film, as blasting caps blow up dummies and put holes in things.
Then he gives the kids posters to hang at school, tells them "DON'T TOUCH!" and rides off into the sunset, apparently without unplugging his TV.

My big question is, was this really a big enough problem that it needed two films? I went to school at about the time this film was made, and I do not recall ever being told (by poster, film, or otherwise) not to touch blasting caps or not to go aroung wiring random electrical devices to radio batteries. I DO recall being warned not to blow ourselves up with firecrackers, but that must not have required posters, bad cinema, or big red EXPLOSIVESmobiles...

So if you do find a blasting cap, lock in in the garage and swallow the key. Whatever you do, do NOT connect it to a radio battery! And remember, DON'T TOUCH!!!